15 September 2010

3D Warnings for Streets

In Vancouver, Canada there is another example of placing a 3D image on the street in order to get motorists to slow down. In this case it's an image of a child picking up a ball in the middle of the street.

Good idea? Bad idea? Some criticism includes that drivers will think that all children on the streets are 3D images and just run them over once they've figured out the system. A bit far-fetched. It's fair comment that motorists on these stretches WILL figure out that the 3D kid is just 3D and not worry much about it after a couple of days.

Indeed, a test of fake 3D speed bumps in Phoenix had this result a few years back.

"Initially they were great," said the Phoenix Police traffic coordinator, Officer Terry Sills. "Until people found out what they were."According to Boingboing.net.

What about using a constantly changing series of images and placing them on the streets? The whole gimmick has legs because it's cheap to put into place. Stickers are cheaper than speed bumps. So keep switching the stickers.

Martin Lindstrom in his neuroscience book Buy-ology concluded that cigarette warning labels are very effective ads instead of warnings, the suggestion was that cigarette warnings should be changed regularly. So that the consumer was always kept thinking and forced to read the text instead of having a Pavlovian reaction upon seeing the same warning labels all the time.

We could also just cut to the chase and go the whole nine yards:

Or, since city councils are seemingly so unwilling to part with funding that will make serious improvements in traffic safety, why not sell adverts in the middle of the road? A holiday company or a soft drink? Yeah, okay. Maybe not.

Of course, redesigning the roads permanently is the best option to improve traffic safety and encourage cycling and pedestrians. But yuck! That costs money!

Okay, here's another alternative from the Copenhagenize thinkthank. We have to be fair and include cyclists in such campaigns, of course. 3D texts with sensible messages for the different traffic users:Variations could include Stop Fucking Hurting Innocent People!, Stop Fucking Polluting!, You Look Lovely on that Bicycle!, Enjoy Your Bicycle Ride! And so on.

I don't think it's farfetched that motorists will adapt and not register the difference between a real child and a fake one once they are used to the program.

It's just adding more clutter to the roadway, and making it harder for drivers to pick out the real dangers from the fake ones. It's easy to tell them to get out of their cars and choose a less lethal form of transportation, but making it even harder to safely operate a motor vehicle isn't a good solution.

We (humans) spend a lot of energy trying to slow people driving cars: signs, stickers, public service campaigns, police enforcement. I think it's time to realize that it's just not working and focus the solution on the machine.

What if the machine has a limited acceleration profile and a lower max speed, especially off the highway. Cars could have chips that trip an engine governor once they come off the highway so that no matter how hard the driver mashes the accelerator the car will accelerate slowly and only go 25mph tops. All makes and models the same.

I know, I know. This is un-American and will lead to economic collapse. Then the commies will take over and force everyone into gay marriage.

@didrik As someone with experience in designing both cars and bicycles I've mentioned here before that at least many of the problems with cars in the urban environment could be mitigated by simply designing cars more suited to it; along the very lines you bring up.

"Car" does not necessarily imply 7 series BMW type vehicles.

In fact, it's quite possible that I'd own and be driving such a vehicle, of my own design and construction, if it were not for one simple impediment - it ain't legal. The laws most places these days DEMAND that a car be a hulking missile, as well as all the other laws (such as the one that Tesla has run afoul of) that assume, and thereby effectively demand, that cars are all of a type.

And yet such urban oriented motorcycles ARE allowed by law in most places, but as I see no particular advantage to them (cleverly combining the worst features of bicycles and motor vehicles in one inconvenient package) except to the disabled, I have no personal interest.

The most reasonable urban "car" would actually be the power assist (a hybrid that actually makes some sense) velomobile (climbing hills is their weakness); an object totally foreign to the thinking of the law.

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Copenhagenize.com is the blog of Copenhagenize Design Company. Online since 2007 and highlighting the cycling life in Copenhagen and around the world.

40 years ago Copenhagen was just as car-clogged as anywhere else but now 41% of the population arriving at work or education do so on bicycles, from all over the Metro area. 55% of Copenhageners themselves use bicycles each day. They all use over 1000 km of bicycle lanes in Greater Copenhagen for their journeys. Copenhagenizing is possible anywhere.